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Global Warming and Climate Change
The phenomena of global warming, climate change and climate crisis have recently entered our lives with the increase in temperatures, forest fires and floods. In fact, in the past, these issues used to come to our mind only when the melting of glaciers happened and the lives of polar bears were in danger. On the other hand, today, the fact that the weather is much hotter than before, especially in summer, along with excessive rainfall causes the question of whether climate change in the world is now turning into a real climate crisis.
We would like to seek answers together to some of the questions we have about this issue, which has come to the fore with the COP28 and COP29 Climate conferences. We believe that it is necessary to have an idea about global warming, the effects of the climate crisis and climate change for both personal development, career management and to be aware of our responsibilities as humans towards our planet. At this point, we tried to prepare this climate crisis article for you in a short and concise way.
We will also touch upon the details of the concept of “climate change“. Because the view that “there is no climate crisis, only climate change, and this is being used by some dominant powers who want to scare people and take away their most basic rights” is becoming widespread in the world public opinion. In this context, interestingly, one of those who defend this view is US President Donald Trump.
US and Climate Change
Let us also note that America did not participate in COP28 and did not sign the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. At this point, it is useful to remember that the countries that have a greenhouse gas effect and cause the most carbon emissions are rich countries.
In other words, it would not be rational to talk about solving this problem unless these developed countries, especially the USA, China, Japan, Russia, Germany and France, take action on this issue. When these countries prioritize economic competition and economic growth, they do not want to slow down economic activities by taking precautions against global warming. Do you see how emotional the subject actually is?
What is the Climate Crisis?
Climate crisis can basically be defined as global warming and climate change irreversibly affecting nature with the increase in fossil fuels used by humans, causing floods, droughts and similar natural events and disasters.
In fact, although the phenomenon of global warming is much more popular, the issue of climate change and crisis is also very important. If we look at the history of the subject, we need to go back to the 1800s and the Industrial Revolution with the invention of the steam engine. With the industrial revolution, the transition to mass production and the rapid expansion of factories, the greenhouse gas effect and carbon emissions have gradually increased.
Along with the economic growth and development brought by the industrial revolution, it also brought environmental pollution. At this point, approximately 250 years after this revolution, we see that we are bringing about the end of the world along with wealth.
At this point, humanity is approaching a crossroads. The survival of our children and grandchildren depends partly on how much we will sacrifice this economic growth and development. At this stage, we will look at the issue of climate change without going into further detail.
What is Climate Change?
Climate change in its shortest sense refers to the long-term change of the world’s general climate. It refers global warming also. When we look at it in this context, the concept of climate change actually describes a very normal and expected situation. The problem here is that while the climate change continued slowly and in its course up until the last century, the speed of climate change has increased indirectly or directly as a result of human interventions and especially global warming has accelerated.
So much if climate change and global warming continue at this rate, the average temperature of the world will rise to very high levels by 2050.
The acceleration of climate change will accelerate migration flows, especially from the Middle East and Africa to more northern regions. It is obvious that the decrease in potable water resources and the increase in temperatures, as well as the melting of glaciers, will reduce the habitable area in the world and this will lead to a kind of human disaster in the long term.
In line with that, the Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are essentially about the commitments of participating countries to keep the world’s warming rate below 2 degrees. Reducing the carbon footprint is exactly a product of these efforts.
Differences Climate Crisis vs Change?
In fact, if you have read the article up to here, you have an idea about this issue. In other words, the main difference between climate crisis and climate change is that climate change is dangerously accelerated by human hands and turns into a climate crisis.
So, the main difference is that while a concept refers to a natural process, climate crisis refers to the disruption of the world’s climate balance due to unnatural and human-made carbon emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels, turning it into a crisis for the whole world and humanity.
Main Causes of Climate Change
As we mentioned before, climate change is an issue that has occupied the world agenda for a long time since the industrial revolution. In this context, it is a very obvious fact that just as this natural process turned into a human-made problem, this problem must be solved by human hands. At this point, we would like to remind you of Noah Harari’s words: “Solving global problems will only be possible with global cooperation.”
In this very stage, the main causes of climate change and the climate crisis could be listed as follows;
- Increased carbon emissions and greenhouse gas effects in the atmosphere as a result of the use of fossil fuels,
- As a result of the increase in industrial production, factory chimneys release polluted air and carbon dioxide into the nature,
- Increase in carbon dioxide due to deforestation as a result of the gradual decrease in forests,
- Increasing “coal use”, which is the biggest cause of fossil fuel and greenhouse gases,
- Increasing carbon emissions,
- Carbon emissions that increase the greenhouse gas effect due to reasons such as electricity generation and fuel supply to cars.
Causes of Climate Crisis – Change?
We have previously provided information about the climate crisis and climate change in this article. In other words, what is natural is that climate change occurs in the long term and in a non-destructive manner. However, due to human intervention and human impacts, climate changes that cause global climate crisis such as sudden warming, cooling and drought are taking place especially in the last century.
At this point, when talking about global cooperation, each country must contribute to the global climate crisis and sustainability goal by sacrificing “economic growth and welfare” if necessary, in a sense, paying a political price. Another opinion in this context is; “In fact, there is no concept of climate crisis, and the elite powers ruling the world are using the concept of global warming issues to scare the people of the world and gradually take away their rights and freedoms.”
It is also interesting that one of the fiercest advocates of this view is former US President Trump, who is one of the countries that use fossil fuels, which cause the greatest greenhouse gas impact on the world. (Of course, he may become the new US president in November 2024.)
In other words, if we look at the concepts of climate crisis, sustainability and global climate change from a political perspective, countries with the highest industrial production such as the USA, Russia, Germany, France, England and China should cooperate globally. In this context the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Climate Agreements are very important globally. However, considering that the politicians of these powerful countries do not want to pay the economic and political costs, the COP28 and COP29 climate conferences and their results will not have a big impact.
Impacts of Climate Crisis!
The phenomenon of climate change has very serious impacts on the world. Especially if this phenomenon happens sooner than expected, its effects could be very devastating globally.
If we were to list the main impacts of climate change and climate crisis on the world;
- Global increase in water levels as a result of the melting of glaciers and some regions remaining under water in the long term,
- Experiencing major forest fires and disasters, especially in the summer, as a result of excessive increases in average air temperatures,
- The rain balance is disrupted and short and extremely intense rain falls with hail,
- Increase in storms, typhoons and similar weather and natural events,
- The increase in droughts due to the greenhouse gas effect and the increase in large and intense migrations as a result of the decrease in habitable areas in the world. (emerging the problems of immigrant crisis and refugee wave)
How to Prevent Climate Crisis?
Even though we think that we cannot take great steps to combat the climate crisis and climate change without the intention or contribution of the global superpowers, we all individually wonder “What should I do to prevent the climate crisis?” We ask this question.
If 8 billion people do something, even if it is step by step and small, maybe we can contribute to the solution of this problem.
In this context, if we list the things we can do individually to prevent the climate crisis;
- We should not use water and electricity unnecessarily.
- We must organize social pressure and demonstrations to force governments globally to take action on the climate crisis and climate change.
- We should ensure that the use of green, renewable energy with solar panels is encouraged instead of the use of coal in energy production.
- We should choose energy-saving items in our homes or workplaces.
Ultimately, if we look at the issue as a whole, it is true that the climate crisis phenomenon stands before us as a very critical reality. However, we also see from time to time that the concepts of climate change and sustainability are tried to be used as a political tool. We must recognize those who use these problems politically and take precautions. People who use such a globally important issue for political purposes are very dangerous. In this context, global cooperation is necessary to combat such people. Please make some comments about climate crisis and change!! In order to read details of COP28, you can visit official page of it.
